CHAP. XXVI.] THE CARNIVAL. 113 



sons armed with bags of flour, which they showered 

 down copiously on any one who seemed particularly 

 proud of his attire. The strangeness of the scene 

 was not a little heightened by the blending of ne 

 groes, quadroons, and mulattos in the crowd ; and 

 we were amused by observing the ludicrous surprise, 

 mixed with contempt, of several unmasked, stiff, 

 grave Anglo -Americans from the North, who were 

 witnessing, for the first time, what seemed to them so 

 much mummery and torn-foolery. One waggoner, 

 coming out of a cross street, in his working-day dress, 

 drove his team of horses and vehicle heavily laden 

 with cotton bales right through the procession, caus 

 ing a long interruption. The crowd seemed deter 

 mined to allow nothing to disturb their good humour ; 

 but although many of the wealthy Protestant citizens 

 take part in the ceremony, this rude intrusion struck 

 me as a kind of foreshadowing of coming events, 

 emblematic of the violent shock which the invasion 

 of the Anglo-Americans is about to give to the old 

 regime of Louisiana. A gentleman told me, that 

 being last year at Home, he had not seen so many 

 masks at the Carnival there ; and, in spite of the in 

 crease of Protestants, he thought there had been 

 quite as much &quot;flour and fun&quot; this year as usual. 

 The proportion, however, of strict Romanists is not so 

 great as formerly, and to-morrow, they say, when 

 Lent begins, there will be an end of the trade in 

 masks ; yet the butchers will sell nearly as much 

 meat as ever. During the Carnival, the greater 

 part of the French population keep open house, espe 

 cially in the country. 



